Da Matta back on top

Pit stop success helps Brazilian win at Elkhart

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — It was a great race if you love pit-stop strategy. That, after all, is what won Sunday's Motorola 220 for Cristiano da Matta.

His Newman/Haas Racing Toyota-Lola was swift and he drove flawlessly while picking up his sixth win of the season. But, after 38 of 60 laps, he trailed Bruno Junqueira of Target Chip Ganassi and gave no indication that he was fast enough to pass him.

After pitting on Laps 14 and 28, the leaders were on schedule to stop again on Lap 42. But Junqueira, the defending champion, inexplicably went in at the end of the 39th, handing the lead over to da Matta.

"When I saw on his [crew's] board that he was going to pit before me," da Matta said, "I thought that was good. Then I could put some good laps together [to build a lead]."

Asked why he pitted when he did, Junqueira said: "That I don't know. It's difficult to say. My engineers, they call the strategy of the race. But I'm not going to blame them. Historically, this is a full-green race."

This race is, historically, run under green around Road America's 4-mile road course. But a lap after Junqueira pitted, Paul Tracy and Kenny Brack wrecked, so out came the yellow caution flag. It was just the opportunity needed by da Matta, who could now pit under caution, return to the track and not worry that Junqueira would come flying by him.

"I was a little bit unlucky," explained Junqueira, who finished third behind Player/Forsythe's Alex Tagliani. "I knew Cristiano would come out on cold tires and I was going to be able to pass him then. But with the yellow flag out, I had to stay behind him. That's where I lost the race. It was a shame."

"The strategy we did was good," said da Matta. "Everything we did today worked. The strategy we played was very important."

The victory signaled a return to dominance by da Matta, who reeled off four straight wins in June and July and opened a yawning lead in the CART championship points race. But he arrived here after failing to finish in three consecutive events and, before Sunday's race, sat down for a conversation with his crew.

"We decided we would try really hard to finish the race, to do anything to bring it home," he said. "We felt that fifth or better would be a good result since we needed to jump-start our season again. Then during the race, we saw we had the pace to win."

The pace early belonged to Tracy, who started fourth, made a pair of daring moves and jumped to the front before the opening lap's conclusion. It was CART's first pass-for-the-lead since April 27 in Japan, and so it was predictable that the affair settled into a procession that would be settled by strategy.

Tracy held the lead through Lap 24, but lost it to Junqueira when he pitted early. Junqueira held the lead until his own pit strategy gave it to da Matta. On Lap 50, with another caution out, the leaders pitted for the final time, and a mistake by his crew got Junqueira out behind Tagliani to cost him second place.

The trio drove the last 10 laps without drama, Tagliani and Junqueira never threatening da Matta, who took care not to repeat the mistake he made last week at Mid-Ohio that ended with him sitting in that road course's sand.

"Sometimes it's too risky to try and overtake," Tagliani explained. "We got close to him a couple of times, but when we went into seventh gear, he'd pull away."

"The last couple of laps wasn't a good feeling at all with Alex behind me and Bruno behind him," da Matta said. "I put a lot of pressure on myself to not make a mistake again. But fortunately I had a margin. I was able to go 99 percent instead of 100 percent."